Will we ever have VoIP access to our cell numbers?

In the never-ending debate over cell phone screen sizes/phablets/tablets, it seems that the implied part of the question is "you can only pick one", meaning if you want a compact phone, you can't have a phablet unless you want another number, and you can't use a tablet as a phone unless you get involved with third-party VoIP providers, and you can't have all at once without paying a premium for extra services and juggling multiple numbers.

What would seem like a great innovation would be access to my cell phone number directly to the carrier via VoIP service. Not only would this allow me access to calling from my cell phone when I only had wifi access, in theory, at least this would give you the option of answering your cell phone number on multiple devices, even if they weren't equipped with cellular voice hardware.

Other than the network complexity issues, it's not clear to me why a cell carrier would object to it, since presumably it would be limited to people who had at least one device with cell phone service, and these people are unlikely to buy a second cell phone simply to have two with varying screen sizes due to the different cell numbers. They could also charge for it, or charge some account premium to enable it, making it another revenue stream, too.

I know that you can actually do this yourself now with services like Line2 or Skype or SIP applications, but it's not something that kind of works out of the box, and usually requires either spending more money, reduced convenience or more sophisticated technical ability or jailbreaking, etc.

What would seem like a great innovation would be access to my cell phone number directly to the carrier via VoIP service. Not only would this allow me access to calling from my cell phone when I only had wifi access, in theory, at least this would give you the option of answering your cell phone number on multiple devices, even if they weren't equipped with cellular voice hardware.

I have a cell that can place/accept either cell or VoIP calls, built in. And with the BT built into my ATA the cell can be part of the ATA and hence all it's services, VoIP or GV.

I think most people who have replied have misunderstood what I was thinking of.

I wasn't thinking of cell phones offloading their calling features to Wifi ala T-Mobile primarily, but primarily giving cell phone numbers an additional presentation on other devices.

For an example, I own an iPhone with a phone number of 123-456-7890. I also own an iPad. I want to be able to open a "Phone" app on the iPad and make/take calls for my cell number via VoIP.

In an ideal world, an incoming call would ring on all devices registered, and outgoing calls would work from any device registered. I should be able to say, travel, with just the iPad and get/make calls.

Now, I can see where cell phone companies might balk at this for various reasons -- general network complexity, call quality (there's a lot of shitty wifi out there), support, etc. I can't see them objecting to this as a revenue loss per se -- they'd probably charge extra for this (per device fee or something) and likely charge for "minutes" anyway, although minutes are throwaway anymore. It's not like they're going to LOSE money by having me make/take calls from my iPad, since I can't assign it a phone number I can call on anyway.

I can see where integration with hardware makers would be worthwhile, as you'd want the VoIP functionality kind of tied into the operating system (ie, for taking calls without the phone app being in the foreground).

I'm surprised that a hardware maker hasn't tried to get features like this implemented in cooperating with a cell carrier as an "exclusive" feature.

Yeah, that's what Rogers' One Number does. Any device capable of voice communications (i.e. either natively, like a phone, or through an app, like a tablet or laptop) can share one phone number. An incoming call will ring on all devices, and an outgoing call on any device will register the same Caller ID.

What you're saying does already exist in various solutions. Android supports native SIP calling, so in theory you can do that now. It falls apart when you talk about tablets because they aren't built with phone services, but I'm sure there are apps out there that will work for your uses. Skype for example, no?

For an example, I own an iPhone with a phone number of 123-456-7890. I also own an iPad. I want to be able to open a "Phone" app on the iPad and make/take calls for my cell number via VoIP.

Set up a SIP client on the iPad and put Google Voice in front of it.

Eponymous Coward wrote:

In an ideal world, an incoming call would ring on all devices registered, and outgoing calls would work from any device registered.

That's Google Voice in a nutshell.

Also I find it useful that voip.ms lets you set outgoing caller ID. If I had an iPad I'd install a SIP client and use that, currently I use it as a pseudo landline, caller ID is set to show up as my GV number. Failing that I could use the web interface to initiate calls or dial the GV number to set up a call. I'm not sure what the GV app does on an iPad, but I'm certain web->SIP app would work.

You can get nearly everything you want by getting a SIP provider and a Google Voice number and handing out the GV number as your phone number. The SIP provider or your cell service will terminate your calls for you when you're VOIPing, the GV will handle the call and SMS forwarding to make it happen. I have used the native VOIP support in Jelly Bean; it's quite smooth.

Devilbunny, which SIP provider did you go with? I've barely researched this, and it sounded like the GV trunk doesn't play nice with everyone. I just ported my main number to GV and am toying with this idea.

Yeah... I like the idea of having a landline. Sure, I like a voice number that connects to a person - that's a nice concept. But I also like the idea of a number that reaches a physical location, particularly at the family house. I think I'll either get a standalone VOIP phone adapter or StraightTalk's $15 per month Verizon "landline" adapter.